Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, UK.
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Assessment and Methodological Support Unit, Via Carlo Magno 1/A, 43126 Parma, Italy.
Environ Int. 2020 Oct;143:105926. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2020.105926. Epub 2020 Jul 9.
There are several standards that offer explicit guidance on good practice in systematic reviews (SRs) for the medical sciences; however, no similarly comprehensive set of recommendations has been published for SRs that focus on human health risks posed by exposure to environmental challenges, chemical or otherwise.
To develop an expert, cross-sector consensus view on a key set of recommended practices for the planning and conduct of SRs in the environmental health sciences.
A draft set of recommendations was derived from two existing standards for SRs in biomedicine and developed in a consensus process, which engaged international participation from government, industry, non-government organisations, and academia. The consensus process consisted of a workshop, follow-up webinars, email discussion and bilateral phone calls.
The Conduct of Systematic Reviews in Toxicology and Environmental Health Research (COSTER) recommendations cover 70 SR practices across eight performance domains. Detailed explanations for specific recommendations are made for those identified by the authors as either being novel to SR in general, specific to the environmental health SR context, or potentially controversial to environmental health SR stakeholders.
COSTER provides a set of recommendations that should facilitate the production of credible, high-value SRs of environmental health evidence, and advance discussion of a number of controversial aspects of conduct of EH SRs. Key recommendations include the management of conflicts of interest, handling of grey literature, and protocol registration and publication. A process for advancing from COSTER's recommendations to developing a formal standard for EH SRs is also indicated.
有几个标准为医学科学的系统评价（SR）提供了明确的实践指导，但针对关注暴露于环境挑战、化学或其他因素对人类健康风险的 SR，尚未发布类似的全面建议。
就环境健康科学中 SR 规划和实施的一系列关键推荐实践达成专家、跨部门共识。
从现有的两份生物医学 SR 标准中提取出一份建议草案，并在共识过程中进行了开发，该过程涉及来自政府、工业界、非政府组织和学术界的国际参与。共识过程包括一次研讨会、后续网络研讨会、电子邮件讨论和双边电话会议。
毒理学和环境健康研究中的系统评价实施（COSTER）建议涵盖了 8 个绩效领域的 70 项 SR 实践。对于作者认为对一般 SR 具有创新性、对环境健康 SR 背景具有特异性或对环境健康 SR 利益相关者具有潜在争议性的特定建议，提供了详细的解释。
COSTER 提供了一系列建议，应有助于产生可信的、高价值的环境健康证据的 SR，并促进对环境健康 SR 实施的一些有争议的方面进行讨论。关键建议包括管理利益冲突、处理灰色文献以及方案注册和发表。还指出了从 COSTER 的建议推进到为环境健康 SR 制定正式标准的过程。
